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Chelsea star reacts to negative tactics claim and Gerrard's calamity

Chelsea claimed a huge scalp when they beat Liverpool earlier in a result that could prove significant in the final destination of the Premier League crown.

There may be no pleasing some football fans.

When it comes to Premier League competition alone, Chelsea are the third highest scorers in the competition having returned 69 goals from 36 games - a near ratio of two goals per game.

While Jose Mourinho's Blues lag behind Liverpool and Manchester City when it comes to putting the ball in the net, they are comfortably higher than one of the teams who were seen to be playing the most technically-exquisite and attack-happy football in the first half of the season - Arsenal.

Despite this, there has been criticism over manager Jose Mourinho's approach to the Liverpool game at Anfield earlier today, Sunday, and the Portuguese has been accused of utilising "anti-football" tactics.

"That's the way the game is," stated Frank Lampard, matter-of-factly, as quoted by Sky Sports.

The words 'game' implies competition and, considering Chelsea are still in the running of returning one or two pieces of silverware this season, there must be a win-at-all-costs mentality in camp.

Winning must be applauded if it is done so within the spirit of the game (ie; fairly), yet Mourinho may be attracting the censure not because of the way he engineered victory on Merseyside but because it was near enough to the same safety-first approach that bored pundits when Chelsea secured a clean sheet at the Vicente Calderon earlier in the week as they drew 0-0 with Atletico Madrid.

"We played to win the game," added Lampard. "We've won titles before, we know what it takes," in a comment that no sports writer can really argue with.

"If we're going to go away and dig in to win games, that's what we'll try to do. Against Liverpool at home earlier in the season we were fantastic going forward. If we can do that, we'll do that. You have to have both sides [multi-dimensional strategies] to win the league."

One of the storylines of the game was not just Chelsea's tactics but Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard's mistake that led to Demba Ba's opening Blue goal. It is a cruel twist that it is just weeks after the Englishman rallied his Reds into a post-game huddle after a 3-2 win over Manchester City and barked that they must not "f***ing slip now!"

"It can happen to any player," said Lampard, sympathising with his compatriot and perhaps reminiscing over his own captain's slips in the climax of competition (John Terry in the Champions League final, 2008).

"Whether Liverpool go on to win the league or not, this doesn't take anything off the player he is and has been. He's been driving them all season. It's not a nice moment."